You actually can't copyright a number. You can copyright a creative endeavor, and it happens that a lot of them can be represented as numbers, but this is actually just a number. It was probably generated randomly.
It's not like an illegal computer program that can be represented as a number either, because the HD-DVD key doesn't do anything on its own. You need to know how to use it AND you need the software with which to do it. Knowing the number alone does not give me the ability to copy DVDs.
I was also under the impression that the key was reverse-engineered rather than published by mistake. I'm not sure where to find out the truth.
Too simplistic. (I don't believe there is any valid copyright claim in the key either, but that is yet to be determined in court. There may be trade secret issues of course, as well as DMCA circumvention issues, but there ought not to be a direct copyright claim. Which makes DMCA take-down notices interesting.)
You can copyright a creative endeavor, and it happens that a lot of them can be represented as numbers, but this is actually just a number. It was probably generated randomly.
Which is the crux of the matter. Many numbers *are* copyrighted. Whether or not something is a number is irrelevant to its copyright status. What is important is how that number came into being, as the result (and expression) of a creative endeavor, or is it "just a number". This is the point of "What colour are your bits? (http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/lawpoli/colour/2004061001.php)"
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-02 08:10 pm (UTC)It's not like an illegal computer program that can be represented as a number either, because the HD-DVD key doesn't do anything on its own. You need to know how to use it AND you need the software with which to do it. Knowing the number alone does not give me the ability to copy DVDs.
I was also under the impression that the key was reverse-engineered rather than published by mistake. I'm not sure where to find out the truth.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-02 08:35 pm (UTC)Which is the crux of the matter. Many numbers *are* copyrighted. Whether or not something is a number is irrelevant to its copyright status. What is important is how that number came into being, as the result (and expression) of a creative endeavor, or is it "just a number". This is the point of "What colour are your bits? (http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/lawpoli/colour/2004061001.php)"